New for 2023: Palace Coup!

Now available for download and print-and-play from Wargame Vault: PALACE COUP, a simple and fast game on the modern coup d’etat.

This game was inspired by two works: Coup d’etat, a Practical Handbook published by Edward Luttwak in 1968, which in turn inspired the making of the movie Power Play in 1978. David Hemmings and Peter O’ Toole played two Army officers plotting a coup in an imaginary country, Donald Pleasence fittingly played the head of the secret police, and Barry Morse played a civilian academic who advises the military. This game is a thorough revision of a game I designed in 1991 called, unoriginally, Power Play. In homage to the movie I have supplied an alternative set of Leader counters with images of these actors, and the cover sheet is a still image from the movie.

Same price as all BTR Games products in this line: $8.00 US funds!

https://www.wargamevault.com/product/421823/Palace-Coup

Ad copy:

Historically in the Third World, coups have changed more governments than elections since World War II. Most coups involve using part of the armed forces of a country to seize power from a ruler, though there is usually little overt conflict – the coup d’etat is generally a much less bloody way of seizing power than its distant cousin, the popular revolution.

In the game, two or more players act as the leaders of political or professional factions in a fictional country. Some players will be plotting, individually or severally, to effect a change in the existing government; they will be opposed by others who wish things to remain as they are.

The game is played in two phases: the Pre-coup Phase where players attempt to secure support for their faction and thwart the others; and the Coup Phase where both pro-government loyalist and rebel sides face off in direct combat.

Each game contains the following: one set of 40 counters, one Tactical Map, and these rules. You will also need one six-sided die, some bits of scrap paper for recording secret information, and one deck of ordinary playing cards (including Jokers).

Power Play was available only briefly from a DTP publisher, with lackluster components and limp promotion, over 20 years ago. I hope you will give this new and much improved BTR Games version a try!

[ETA: a Boardgamegeek entry for this game was approved with suspicious speed: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/377788/palace-coup ]

Reminder: talk on self-publishing, December 8

Comrades and friends:

Just a reminder that on Tuesday, December 8, from 6pm Eastern (that’s 2200 Zulu Time) for two whole hours (maybe), I will be talking and taking questions on the whys, hows and wherefores of self-publishing and distributing your own wargames. Everything begins with something homemade, and sometimes it just stays that way.

The event is free but you have to register through Eventbrite:

Register on Eventbrite

BTR Games available through Wargame Vault

I am making my whole line of “BTR Games” products available for PnP on Wargame Vault.

To produce these games, I would go to the copy shop to have small batches of counter sticker sheets, maps etc. made up. But I’ve been working from home since March 2020 and can’t get near any copy shops, and it is not worth trying to print all this at home, so I have run out of components for most titles. I can’t print 11×17″ maps at home anyway. This also saves any delay in my having to organize a trip to the post office (which was also proving occasionally difficult).

The real value, though, from the customer’s point of view is that they can order Brian Train products drunk at 3 am, as most online purchases are made, and get them right away.

https://www.wargamevault.com/browse/pub/18373/BTR-Games

When things begin to stabilize and I return to my office, I do plan to have physical versions of the games available again for people who do not want to go the PnP route.

Future GUWS event = me! (December 8, 2020)

 

For some time now, under the energetic direction of Sebastian Bae, the Georgetown University Wargaming Society (GUWS) has been holding regular online webinars and events. Designers and users have talked on many aspects of the professional and civilian uses of wargames. Here’s a link to the GUWS Youtube channel, where many of them can be reviewed. 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw0nVuQu5KoHv0kFiC9yX4Q

Now it’s my turn!

On Tuesday, December 8, from 6pm Eastern (that’s 2200 Zulu Time) for two whole hours (maybe), I will be talking and taking questions on the whys, hows and wherefores of self-publishing and distributing your own wargames. Everything begins with something homemade, and sometimes it just stays that way.

The event is free but you have to register through Eventbrite:

Register on Eventbrite

Hope to see y’all there!

Or if not, I will just talk to myself for two hours… I’m good mit der in-jokes.

And later, you can talk about it on the discussion forums at Armchair Dragoons:

https://www.armchairdragoons.com/forum/index.php#c12

BTR Games: suspending sales

NOTICE:

I have been working from home since March, 2020 and do not have the access to copy/print shops I did when I was at my downtown office.

I have run out of at least some components for most of the games and am suspending sales of the physical versions until I can resupply.

I guess I should also look into making PnP versions of these available from wargamevault.com, but really they would be the same files as available from me personally.  The main difference would be you could order them drunk at 3 am, like most online purchases, and get them right away. 

 

Sitrep: the Syrian Arab Army

SAA OOB, early 2019. Credit: Gregory Waters.

https://www.mei.edu/publications/lion-and-eagle-syrian-arab-armys-destruction-and-rebirth

Here is a brilliant bit of contemporary history and analysis by Gregory Waters of the Middle East Institute on the collapse of the Syrian Arab Army during the Syrian Civil War and its rebuilding under Russian tutelage. Includes complete, detailed Orders of Battle for years between 2013 and early 2019. Current OOB was partly assembled and verified through checks of Facebook pages!

My Third Lebanon War game (which will soon be issued in physical form as a BTR Games product, I hope) has Syrian intervention units in it, however they were not given distinct numbers – I assumed at the time (2010-11) that they would be the 1st Corps, perhaps reinforced with some extra armoured forces. Apparently the 1st Corps has spent the entire Civil War still deployed in approximately the same area (covering the Golan Heights, Deraa, and Damascus generally). The divisions haven’t changed much though they are now more mechanized/motorized infantry since the Syrian tank fleet is quite reduced from what it was.

4Box system: series video review

On Youtube, Randy Strader has posted a 22-minute video on the games of mine he owns that use the 4Box system, beginning with Andartes.

This is a good explanation of the system and variations thereof: he runs through all six or so games that use the 4 box system (Tupamaro (as prototype), Shining Path, Algeria, Andartes, Kandahar, EOKA) and other area-control games of mine he also owns (Green Beret, Binh Dinh 69 and Operation Whirlwind).

Seven of these nine have been published in folio format by One Small Step, and their production gets a good look-in. He’s also kind to the much more modest graphic and production standards of my own BTR Games products.

He also acknowledges the influence of the 4Box system on the development of Volko Ruhnke’s COIN system, and my two games using that exact system (A Distant Plain and Colonial Twilight)

Thanks Randy! I appreciate your work.

The (brief) return of Balkan Gamble

BALKAN GAMBLE

BACK IN PRINT – only 10 copies available! (no wait, only 9 left now…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…0)

EDITED TO ADD: BALKAN GAMBLE is now SOLD OUT. 

I initially made only 20 figuring they would never all sell, but they did and people have been asking for it, so I have made up another 10 copies. They sold too. What gives? Is this some kind of a trend?

The Allied invasions of the Balkans that never happened. One of the great what-ifs of World War 2 in the Mediterranean theatre, at least to Hitler and the German High Command, was the possibility of an Allied invasion of Greece and/or Yugoslavia. The Allies knew the Germans perceived such invasions as a credible threat and created several strategic deception plans, leading the Germans to move or keep critical troop formations in northern Italy and the Balkans when they would have been much more useful somewhere else. Scenarios for 1943, 1944, 1945, and a hypothetical 1950 Soviet invasion of Yugoslavia. Uses the Autumn Mist/ Summer Lightning/ Winter Thunder system of formation activations and almost-diceless combat with mission matrix, at a larger scale: 1 week/turn; 30 km/hex; division/brigade; 17×22″ hex map and 280 double-sided counters. Many “chrome” rules to cover the fragmented human, political and physical terrain of the area.

This game has twice the map (and it’s printed on nice heavy paper) and twice the counter sheets, so the price per copy is $25 US. This includes postage. Paypal to brian.train@gmail.com. Thanks!

New from BTR Games: EOKA

As work finally winds down on Colonial Twilight, I finally made the last touches to EOKA, and journeyed to the copy shop to get some copies printed out. So, the game that I originally worked out in 2010-11 is finally available!

It is the first game ever published on this small but very interesting counterinsurgency campaign.

[ETA: it now has a BGG entry too: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/214564/eoka]

EOKA: The Cyprus Emergency, 1955-59

Greek Cypriot terrorists (EOKA) vs. British occupiers (Empire). A colonial situation, with both sides working under considerable strictures of resources and time.

One 11×17″ area-movement map of Cyprus, 140 double-sided counters (when assembled). Mission-oriented system, the most ambitious development of the Shining Path/ Algeria/ Andartes system yet, with additional rules to cover the lasting effects of violence and kinetic operations and requirements for government to maintain civic infrastructure. Also includes:

• A third faction, representing non-state militias. During the historical conflict groups of Turkish Cypriots came together to form self-defence groups to protect their villages from ethnic violence. There were also small groups of British expatriates who acted as vigilantes. They supported the government in its opposition to EOKA, but were not under its control. These groups are represented in the game by “Volkan” units (named after the main such Turkish group), that are not played by a human player but which appear on the map in response to high levels of insurgent violence and perform in accordance with a set of “automatic” rules.
• A simple intelligence – counterintelligence subsystem, where the counterinsurgent seeks to identify the insurgent forces and anticipate their actions, while the insurgent tries to evade and cloak his presence.
• Lastly, solitaire play rules are included for a semi-randomized British player that will allow players to learn and play the game alone.

Like other games in the “Box4” system, the main currency of victory is the Political Support Level, and the game ends when one side zeroes out.

If the Empire PSL reaches zero, it means something along the lines of a negotiated settlement has been reached among the British, Greek and Turkish governments on the future status of Cyprus. Historically, one was reached at the beginning of 1959 which decided that Cyprus would be an independent country, without ethnic partitions, and that the British would be allowed to maintain several military bases on the island.

If the EOKA PSL reaches zero, it means something like a collapse of the viability of the organization has occurred –  the Greek government decides it should no longer be supported, the population of Cyprus turns against what EOKA proposes, the security forces manage to round up or eliminate much of EOKA’s field units, etc..

The usual terms: $15 US funds, which includes postage to anywhere. I take, and prefer Paypal: please pay to brian.train@gmail.com. Like other BTR Games releases, the game comes in a comic book bag and you must mount and cut the counters yourself. (Tell you what, though, I will do that for you for an extra $35 US… a bargain, Tom Wham will charge you up to $200! http://www.tomwham.com/stuff.html)

I hope you find this one interesting!

Western half of map. Note new layout of “4 boxes”.

 

Section of counter sheet. Yes, I am crude. Thanks to Tom Mouat and his Mapsymbs fonts!

Balkan Gamble – short second chance!

I made up a few more copies of Balkan Gamble. Here’s your second chance to get one!

BALKAN GAMBLE

The Allied invasions of the Balkans that never happened. One of the great what-ifs of World War 2 in the Mediterranean theatre, at least to Hitler and the German High Command, was the possibility of an Allied invasion of Greece and/or Yugoslavia. The Allies knew the Germans perceived such invasions as a credible threat and created several strategic deception plans, leading the Germans to move or keep critical troop formations in northern Italy and the Balkans when they would have been much more useful somewhere else. Scenarios for 1943, 1944, 1945, and a hypothetical 1950 Soviet invasion of Yugoslavia. Uses the Autumn Mist/ Summer Lightning/ Winter Thunder system of formation activations and almost-diceless combat with mission matrix, at a larger scale: 1 week/turn; 30 km/hex; division/brigade; 17×22″ hex map and 280 double-sided counters. Many “chrome” rules to cover the fragmented human, political and physical terrain of the area.

Only TWENTY copies have been made. Most have been sold. But you can still get one!

“Now, Maitland! Now’s your time!

The price for these is $25 each, since it has twice the map, printed (not copied) onto quality heavy stock, and twice the usual number of counters (though you still have to mount and cut them). That also makes it heavier, so postage costs more (but is still included in the cost of the game).

If you want a copy, please let me know at brian.train@gmail.com. I take, and prefer, Paypal.

Thanks!